oh there are the. welcome back to the big picture i'm tom hartman coming up in this half hour today violence and protests erupted across europe as the eurozone economies continue to suffer in the wake of devastating austerity policies but these continent wide strikes led by organized labor groups be the turning point in the global fight against austerity and while lawmakers in washington continue to bicker over how to avoid the fiscal cliff american families know exactly what needs to be done why are conservatives so opposed to it vested in this nation's future tell you it's a nice daily take.

in the bus to the rest of the news another wal-mart workers strike is underway today dozens of wal-mart warehouse workers and mira loma california walked off the job to protest unsafe working conditions and retaliation by management this is the latest walkout in a string of labor disruptions at wal-mart supply warehouses and retail outlets in september workers are hoping this latest strike spreads to other wal-mart suppliers and retail outlets ahead of the busiest shopping day of the year and next week black friday and wal-mart's fifty year history not a single store in the united states has succeeded in forming a union that again never in the retail giants fifty year history of workers been walking off the job and mouse as we've seen in recent months and with black friday looming and wal-mart workers receiving support from nationwide organizations like

occupy and a national organization of women which could be this could be a shopping day to remember for the latest josh eidelson joins me now he's a labor journalist and contributing writer to the nation's salon and in these times josh welcome thank you jon what prompted today's strike in california. well today's strike was actually scheduled to begin tomorrow it's a response to retaliation that workers say they experienced after a lot last time they went on strike to protest retaliation for organizing and the workers moved the strike up twenty four hours at the last minute last night in response to what they say is even more retaliation again against these warehouse workers for standing up over issues like not having access to drinking water except that came from a hose and having ramps that injure workers because they are set up shabbily on any any sense idea or details on what that retaliation was like what form that so i

talked to one worker who is a leader in the warehouse strike there who's been fired the excuse he says he was given is that he was threatening when he argued with the manager about safety what he says is what he said to the manager is if you make us work in unsafe conditions we're going to hold you responsible so that's a. in so it is you know in the view of his coworkers and. they hope that they will be vindicated by the law and. for him to say we're going to hold the company accountable for safety issues is not a reason to fire him it would he believes with his coworkers who have talked to believe as the company was searching for an excuse to fire someone who was involved in organizing people they go out on strike what's the latest on possible black friday actions so next week on friday workers him pledge to make black friday very memorable for wal-mart they had one hundred sixty retail workers went out on strike

one of the two strikes last month those hundred sixty workers organizers say each been responsible for trying to turn out more co workers next week what we don't know yet is how much bigger can they grow the strike from what happened last month we do know that there have support from occupy from groups like the national consumers league and the national organization of women and that they play in sit ins in stores flash mobs leafleting to customers as well as walk outs to think that this could be particularly given the size of the reelection of president obama is. broadly viewed as friendly to labor and certainly compared to mitt romney i think that this could be a tipping point the united states that might put us in the opposite direction of where taft hartly took us in forty seven or where reagan took us in nine hundred eighty one when he busted the patco you know. what i think what's already happened at wal-mart over the past couple of months shows the power of example in the power

of solidarity that we've grown from suppliers at one seafood company who supplied food for wal-mart where eight people went on strike to these warehouse workers to the retailers i get e-mails as a journalist from wal-mart workers saying i want to know what's going on i want to find a way to get involved. so clearly people are watching and workers in other places are watching just as the chicago teachers union strike workers did at longview when they blocked the tracks to protect their jobs in the long schuurman union these actions couldn't ripple effects in the wal-mart straight means taking the fight to the heart of the company that is driving down wages for everybody that is the largest retailer it largest employer in the world and then everyone seen is untouchable by labor so certainly the fact that as much has happened is has the turning point and now the question is can they actually get warmer to do what it

doesn't want to do right and we will see that played out over the next weeks and months within the next week and a half is going to be particularly interesting as we head toward black friday josh thanks so much for being with us for the report on this. thank you tom. wal-mart warehouse workers aren't the only people on strike today so it's pretty much all of europe or at least the developed countries are the top countries in europe worst or best of the streets in greece spain portugal and italy to protest the relentless austerity measures being shoved down their throats by conservative technocrats in spain where austerity has pushed the unemployment rate to a european high of twenty five percent major trade unions walked off the job grounding flights and grinding public transportation to a halt similar labor actions took place in greece where parliament recently passed another new round of austerity measures even in france where socialist president francois hollande has attempted to makes more progress of policies in with

austerity more than one hundred thirty demonstrations were held today by labor unions that argue austerity policies threaten the european social model this is the first time since the start of the eurozone debt crisis several years ago that we've seen labor organizing crossing borders to bring about cot and wide protests against us. so could this be the turning point when the power of organized people finally overcomes the power of organized banks. and has marty active in the us as david marty excuse me activist and member of the international organization for a participatory society madrid chapter and co-author of the forthcoming book occupy strategy david welcome back to the program hi glad to be with you thank you for joining us again and thank you for staying up the middle the night there in spain since the austerity was an act that what changes have you noticed in spain. well

i would say that if you have to plan out two main headlines in the in the whole economic situation i mean it would probably take a longer conversation than the one we don't have tonight but the two main headlines would probably like unemployment which has reached twenty six percent rates. he doesn't even account for those who already left the country or those who have already given up on searching for a job and it means that there is a quarter of the labor force which is not only not participating in wealth creation but it's only one part of the population which is not consuming iowa and that's not even mentioning the huge psychological toll which is take that he's taking on workers who are being marginalized and that adds up to all the reasons why people to the streets today for the second man a headline main headline i would say would be the home of the actions with which to take. a very dramatic turn in the recent days with the suicide.

series of suicides of. several people who on the day of their eviction b. took their own lives and you had a big impact on public opinion in general which have already a very low opinion regarding the shows which is very dramatic here in spain and quite different from what you have in the united states. maybe i should explain that here in spain it's even more dramatic because even after you have. lost your house you keep paying for it and that adds up to the drama of losing your job losing the family and being marginalised of course so i would say that those are the main. headlines of austerity unfortunately now most even you look at the you know. on the let me start the second most of the folks who are promoting austerity in europe say that this is to get down the debt

and it's going to help g.d.p. but in greece and in spain what we're seeing is that as austerity marches in g.b. crashes and big makes it even harder to pay off debts so is there a consensus forming among the spanish people about why. i stirred has been forced on them as it becomes more and more obvious that it's not just to try to help this d. g.d.p. the debt ratio problem. as you say as you have said stay ready will tori's lee it's not working it's not only not delivering on its promise well i think it's not the problem not the promises that they may have made to the elites but accuse the promises that they may have made that they did to the workers it's not. restoring growth it's not reducing unemployment at all it's not working in spain it hasn't worked in portugal it hasn't worked in arlon in greece it's not working you need sally and he has no work i mean i'm yet to find one good argument

. even if they read sicko arguments in favor of austerity and. well. what was the question again well i'm curious if the people in spain are starting to think that austerity is just a thinly veiled strategy or used to rob them blind yeah the people who believed in in the in the russian i for stereo the people who. believe the arguments they were. put in for put forward by the conservatives campaign last year during the elections they have shown now in public opinions that they no longer believe in that rush or not i think they are seeing now that the mask is off and this was just an entire.

well peroration just to get their hands on very juicy steak by prime program which is which represented by the welfare state i think you're absolutely right there was really behind so right there the rationale behind us terry is just it's just a complete fraud of course you know this is what naomi klein called disaster capitalism and i think she did exactly david thank you so much for being with us tonight we really appreciate stand up to talk with us and glad to be with you thanks thank you . after the break there's one thing that every family in america understands and it's something that republicans in congress just can't wrap their heads clear what that is and why it's so important and tonight's daily take.

wealthy british song it's not. time to. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day.

and welcome back earlier today on my radio show mike from benson arizona called me and wanted to share this robo call that's going around in his state he recorded off his phone take a listen. to for the obama folks to point at the article with one thought about it we'll have to figure we do what you can and if we're going to already attack america. you have it right here herb our only recourse now and could move forward with. a president obama we suspect obama like trying to get there maybe going for him as if laid out in the constitution our only option and for just one small donation to the impeach obama effort you get a three don't tread on me flag no really you do point is don't think for

a second the just because president obama was reelected that the whack a doodle would go away and not going anywhere is to four more years of birth death there's ten thirza now impeach yours. it's the good the bad of the very very gently to slee ugly their good eureka springs arkansas on monday eureka springs became the first city in arkansas to officially endorse marriage equality a four member majority the city council approved the measure eureka springs has a population of twenty three hundred and it's often called the san francisco of arkansas for both its physical resemblance to the city and its large population eureka springs is decision to endorse marriage equality just weeks after another southern city austin texas did the same thing both of these decisions show that

support for marriage equality is brought in throughout america hopefully it won't be long before marriage equality is a right everywhere in our country so bad it's constant state senator alberta darling darling was interviewed by a local wisconsin t.v. station was asked whether she thought voter suppression i.d.'s would make a difference or would have made a difference for wisconsin in the election here's what she had to say. do you think a photo id would have made any difference to me on a mother so i guess i think so now we're looking at alternative different precincts and all sorts of same day registrations i know we don't have to send our action but why why can we have voter id when the majority of our people in wisconsin want to have we passed and the governor signed and why the senate one challenge and dane county be able to hold and i have twelve is there only one judge should be able to hold it up because voter suppression id laws are unconstitutional and deny

americans one of their basic rights the right to vote the way republicans had a chance of winning big in the election was by using voter suppression tactics of the statement by ms. darling injures groups. and the very very ugly is constant g.o.p. lawmakers staying in wisconsin we move to some of moves darlings colleagues group of republican lawmakers in wisconsin nine of them to be exact want to enact legislation that would make it a crime for federal officials to implement obamacare in the state of wisconsin the lawmakers stated their position in a questionnaire where they asked a fellow lawmakers will you support legislation to nullify obamacare and authorize state local law enforcement to arrest federal officials attempting to implement the unconstitutional health care speech no one as obamacare well first the supreme court ruled that obamacare is in fact constitution but more importantly these officials are trying to deny the people of wisconsin access to affordable and

life's saving health care and that is very very. is something that every single american family understands the conservative budget hawks don't want to talk about and that's the difference between spending and investing. let's assume that the typical american family collects its paycheck at the end of the month and decides to take the family out for a fancy dinner a couple glasses of wine an appetizer for entrees a few desserts later we're bringing the chaconne at least here in d.c. that families now out about one hundred fifty bucks for the tip do that once a month as a special treat you're pushing two thousand dollars for the year that money is not coming back it was suspended and is now gone. now let's assume that same family

decided to skip all the fancy dinners all year and instead they take two thousand dollars and put it into home repairs like a new air conditioner improved insulation or a new roof unlike spending it on a fancy dinner that money doesn't just disappear it will actually create more wealth for the family in the long run through lower energy bills and an increase in the value of their home that's an investment or let's assume that same family uses a chunk of their paycheck to start a pre-paid college fund for their kids again that money doesn't disappear instead it was invested in the future for their kids to earn a college degree or maybe they just buy a hundred fifty dollars of a stock every month like everyone else again that money doesn't disappear in fact in a year it might be worth twenty five hundred dollars that's an investment american families know the difference between spending and investing and they know when

times are tough they cut back on spending but not on investments i mean fewer fancy dinners out but no cuts to their kids' college fund or mortgage payments on the house. but why isn't this same logic applied to our government like a family our government is capable of both spending and investing. money put into our wars is a perfect example of spending as a nation we can spend a trillion dollars deploying troops in iraq and afghanistan in fact have or are manufacturing and detonating bunker busting bombs and refueling aircraft carriers in the gulf guess what happens to all that money it's obliterated war spending is just that spending it doesn't create more wealth in the future the shards of a predator drones missile in northern pakistan will not create one dime of lasting wealth for our nation our military might as well have gone out for a few million big fancy steak dinners. no question about it our government spends

a lot of money when it comes to reducing our deficits there's certainly a lot of waste fraud abuse within that spending that can be cut particularly in the defense department which seems to have lost two trillion dollars they can't account for. but let's not confuse spending with investing which our government also does a lot for example money put into pell grants and more kids can go to college is an investment that will create a lasting wealth for our entire nation when those kids graduate become a productive part of the economy our experience of the g.i. bill two generations ago indicates every dollar spent will return at least seven dollars and maybe as much as fifty dollars back to government coffers in the form of income taxes for more productive and higher paid workers money put toward green energy projects like wind farms solar plants electric cars these are all investments that not only create a boatload of jobs they also reduce our demand for foreign oil and they make our

environment cleaner all good outcomes from an investment. money put toward infrastructure like new roads bridges high speed rail systems these are all investments that will make it cheaper and easier for businesses to ship goods across the country or for americans to travel on vacation money put into health care research is an investment that will cut down on the costs the diseases inflict on our economy and as a bonus gives us a healthier more productive workforce even money put towards social welfare programs like food stamps and unemployment benefits turns out to be investments movies not some left wing think tank movies did research in on this and found that for every dollar invested in expanding the food stamp program you cut to me generates an additional dollars seventy three and for every dollar invested in unemployment benefits the the economy generates an additional dollars sixty four that's a pretty good return on investment president obama often uses the word investment

in referring to money put into education programs infrastructure and health care research but you'll never hear republicans use the word invest for them it's always spending spending spending. it all goes back to reagan saying this back in the one nine hundred eighty s. . i think you will know that i've always felt the nine most terrifying words in the english language or i'm from the government and i'm here to help ever since then conservatives and been to hell bent on convincing all of us the government can't do anything right there all i can do is spend or waste money but this ridiculous talking point ignores an entire national history of worthwhile investments from jefferson's louisiana purchase to lincoln's land grant colleges f.d.r.'s new deal eisenhower's interstate highway system all were investments made

by our government that created enormous wealth in the long term for the nation in the form of new jobs better education more efficient transportation and they all more than paid for themselves by the increase in tax revenues that comes with that increased economic activity but concern is know that if they drag the name of government through the mud enough then they can convince the american people that our american experiment in democratic governance is a failure so they appoint loggerheads like brownie had a theme and then when fema fails they do that they pointed out to justify privatizing it whether they call it austerity or they call it starve the beast the goal is the same slash government investments and let private corporations and fat cats and all the work of building our national infrastructure caring for our sick and elderly in transitioning us to a new energy source rather than all this work being done for the public good as the

government would ensure they'd have it done for the private profit good of a handful of fat cats on wall street. today with the so-called fiscal cliff looming conservative budget hawks are still ignoring or lying about our government's role as an investor paul ryan's budget which is the republican starting point in negotiations proposes massive cuts to crucial investments like medicare pell grant programs and green energy in the short term ryan's cuts will lower the deficit but in the longer term those fewer investments will inflict serious harm on our nation what will the american work workforce look like in twenty years with a million fewer college graduates how much money will be wasted over the next fifty years on cancer causing climate warming fossil fuels while we procrastinate on developing clean energy what sort of damage will be inflicted on our health care system when millions of seniors lose preventative care and instead have to rely on

paul ryan's vouchers in the emergency room as their health provider just as a family chooses to invest in the areas that are most important to them like their home their kids' college education their health care our government's investments reflect national priorities like education health care infrastructure. without those investments we have no future and without a future that budget deficits and fiscal cliffs really don't matter all. let's put america back to work let's invest in her once again. and that's the way it is tonight wednesday nov fourteenth twenty one for more information on any of the stories we covered this in our web sites of thom hartmann are called free speech dot org and our team dot com if you missed any of that i'd show you can are watching the nation. at hulu dot com slash the big picture also check out our two you tube channels there are links to tarp and i can also tell when i can check out all the different ways you can send

a speech. and don't forget democracy begins when you get out there get active show up your occupy some. browsers. see centers looks like. this it's in. my daddy. does a famous reuse dance and play of his own my saved and my money ransom business.

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